Monday, August 23, 2010

Most of the Newar festivals have special foods to offer. Looking back at the festivals they celebrate, it is not so hard to find out that they celebrate every festival according the foods they produce. All the friends and families gathered around together and offer servings of the foods provided in different season in and they have different festivals for different foods they have. Likewise, the special menu for Gunhi Punhi is Kwati. Hence the day is also called Kwati Punhi, where Kwati is a soup of different beans and Punhi means the full moon day. Lots of Newars do put the yellow sacred threads around the wrists which are to be taken off on the day of Laxmi Puja, another festival in Tihar, about two months after this festival.

Composition of Kwati ( Traditional Soup )

Today, thousands of devotees worship Lord Shiva at Pashupatinath in Kathmandu and at Kumbheswor in Lalitpur and take holy dips in ponds and lakes. Religious fairs are held at Gosaikunda, an Alpine area in Rasuwa district, and at Dansangu Triveni in Jumla district to observe the festival with offerings of worship to Lord Shiva.

Gosaikunda

A big religious fair takes place at Gosaikund Lake. On the occasion, worshippers come from far places to take a ritual holy dip in the Gosaikund Lake and other nearby lakes.

According to time honoured tradition, people receive the "Rakshya Bandhan" thread tied around the wrist. The yellow thread is purified by the chanting of Mantras by Brahmins as a symbol of protection from fear and disease.

Raksha bandhan

On Janai Purnima, a full moon day, Bramhan ( High cast ) chant the powerful Gayatri Mantra and change their Sacred thread (janai), while a rakshya bandhan, a red or yellow protection cord, is tied around the wrists of other Hindus and Buddhists. Pilgrims journey to the mountains north of Kathmandu.